City Council and PUSD to Hold Special Joint Meeting on Monday

The City Council and the Pasadena Unified School District will hold their annual joint meeting this week.

The special meeting will begin at 4 p.m. and comments on matters not on the agenda will not be allowed.

The meeting will start with a highlight of PUSD programs and a presentation on community safety intervention programs for local youth.

The school board and the City Council will also receive a presentation on current joint use agreements by the district and the city, including the joint use of facilities.

The agreement dates back to 1978 when the two sides agreed to reciprocal use of recreation and school facilities for a 10 year period.

An amendment was reached in 1989 for another 10 years.  The amendment excluded the city’s golf course, the Pasadena Center, the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, the Rose Bowl and the district’s swimming pools.

A presentation on the council’s newly developed Early Childhood Development and Early Learning Task Force is also included on Monday’s agenda.

Last week, the City Council unanimously approved an Early Childhood Development and Early Learning task force.

The task force will work with staff to review the status of the implementation of the early child development policy adopted by the City Council in 2015.

Efran Aguilar, Geoff Albert, Toni Boucher, Lila Guirguis, Ree Harris-Hudson, Peggy Nguyen, Dr. Dianne Philibosian, Marie Kanne Poulsen, Ernesto Saldana, Tony Santilena, Blanca Siebels, Melani Smith, Susan Wood and Dr. Vera Vignes will make up the task force.

The members represent a diverse cross-section of early childhood and early learning experts, practitioners and advocates; leadership and early childhood staff of the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD); parents of young children from PUSD; child-care professionals: brain science experts: and workforce, public health and maternal care leaders.

The task force will begin its work no later than March 15 and meet twice a month and report back to the council on the current status of implementation of policy, the policy’s alignment with the most recent science regarding best practices on implementing early childhood programs, and any policy changes needed to support the city’s youngest children and families die to immediate issues, including the pandemic, racial injustice, cycles of violence and economic instability.

All meetings will be held in accordance with the Brown Act.

The task force will present an update to the City Council no later than June 11 and forward a final report to the City Council on or before September 12 and sunset at that time.